Michael Bublé‘s 2011 blockbuster Christmas holds at No. 1 on the Top Catalog Albums chart dated Jan. 4. This is its 61st week atop the list, which is more than twice as many weeks as any other holiday album. Kenny G‘s Miracles: The Holiday Album is second place with 27 weeks in the lead.
Bublé’s album topped the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks in 2011-12. It first topped the Catalog Albums chart in November 2012.
The Catalog Albums chart ranks the week’s most popular catalog albums in the U.S. Catalog albums are titles that are older than 18 months old and have fallen below No. 100 on the Billboard 200 — or holiday albums in their second holiday season. The chart was introduced in Billboard in the issue dated May 25, 1991.
For the first 18 years of Top Catalog Albums, catalog albums weren’t eligible to appear on the Billboard 200. That changed with the Dec. 5, 2009-dated chart, when catalog restrictions were lifted, turning the Billboard 200 into an all-inclusive list of the best-selling albums in the country, regardless of their age. (The adjustment came after Michael Jackson’s death in June 2009, which triggered a sales explosion for his catalog titles. Jackson’s catalog compilation Number Ones was the best-selling album in six of the first seven weeks following his death, yet was ineligible for Billboard’s flagship chart – marking the first time a catalog album had outsold the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200.) Starting with the issue dated Dec. 13, 2014, Billboard shifted from pure sales to a multi-factor consumption formula that also includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales.
We’re going to count down the 17 albums with the longest runs at No. 1 on Catalog Albums from 1991 to the present. It’s an eclectic list, to say the least. It includes two Christmas albums, a film soundtrack and a remarkably wide range of music, including pop, traditional pop, rock, hard rock, R&B, rap, country and reggae.
Eight of the albums on the list were released prior to the 1991 inception of the chart. Impressively, they made the list even though activity prior to the chart’s inception doesn’t count.
Here are the albums with the longest runs at No. 1 on Catalog Albums, from 1991 to the present. Each entry includes the album’s release date, the date the album first reached No. 1 on Catalog Albums and the album’s peak position on the Billboard 200.
Prince, The Very Best of Prince, 18 weeks
Image Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
